---
title: 'Earthdistance'
description: 'Provides functions for calculating great-circle distances between points on Earth.'
---

The [earthdistance](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/earthdistance.html) extension in PostgreSQL provides functions for calculating great-circle distances between points on Earth. It is useful for applications that require geospatial distance calculations, such as location-based services and mapping applications.
Your Nile database arrives with `earthdistance` extension and its dependency `cube` already enabled, so there's no need to run `create extension`.

## Creating and Populating `locations` Table

Before performing distance calculations, let's create a sample table to store latitude and longitude values:

```sql
CREATE TABLE locations (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    name TEXT,
    latitude DOUBLE PRECISION,
    longitude DOUBLE PRECISION
);

INSERT INTO locations (name, latitude, longitude) VALUES
    ('San Francisco', 37.7749, -122.4194),
    ('New York', 40.7128, -74.0060),
    ('Los Angeles', 34.0522, -118.2437),
    ('Chicago', 41.8781, -87.6298),
    ('Miami', 25.7617, -80.1918);
```

## Calculating Distance Between Two Points

To compute the great-circle distance between two points (given in latitude and longitude in degrees), use the `earth_distance()` function:

```sql
SELECT a.name AS location_a, b.name AS location_b,
       earth_distance(ll_to_earth(a.latitude, a.longitude), ll_to_earth(b.latitude, b.longitude)) AS distance_meters
FROM locations a, locations b
WHERE a.name = 'San Francisco' AND b.name = 'New York';
```

This returns the approximate distance in meters between San Francisco and New York.

## Finding Locations Within a Given Radius

To find all locations within 1000 km of San Francisco:

```sql
SELECT name, earth_distance(ll_to_earth(37.7749, -122.4194), ll_to_earth(latitude, longitude)) AS distance_meters
FROM locations
WHERE earth_distance(ll_to_earth(37.7749, -122.4194), ll_to_earth(latitude, longitude)) < 1000000;
```

## Limitations

- `earthdistance` assumes a **spherical Earth model**, which may introduce minor inaccuracies.
- Distance calculations are **approximate** and may not be suitable for high-precision geospatial applications.
- Requires both `cube` and `earthdistance` extensions to be installed.

## Removing an Index

If you need to remove the spatial index:

```sql
DROP INDEX locations_earth_idx;
```

## Conclusion

The `earthdistance` extension in PostgreSQL simplifies great-circle distance calculations for geographic coordinates. It is useful for applications needing fast location-based searches and distance queries.

For more details, refer to the [PostgreSQL documentation](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/earthdistance.html).
